A Laois Life engrained in captivating creativity

Life begins at 40, they say, but we can rephrase that in the case of Knockaroo man Roger Bennett, who was in his 50s when his life took a shift from which he never looked back.

The schoolteacher - who was raised on a Laois farm - has made a name for himself as a master woodturner and artist who makes distinctive coloured bowls and vessels.

In truth, they are more than containers, they are works of art which are gracefully shaped, often surprisingly thin. Many are inlaid with hundreds of silver dots arranged in constellation-like clusters or formal geometric patterns.

He has also developed a complementary jewellery range of pendants, brooches, earrings, and cufflinks for those who’d like to wear his art as they walk through the world. Roger’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Ireland and abroad. 

The Laois man has twice won the woodturning award in the RDS National Crafts Competition. In 2021, he was also named
an ‘Irish Craft Hero’, one of 50 makers selected to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Design and Crafts Council Ireland.

Roger moved away from Laois on his life’s journey many years ago, but he hasn’t lost a sense of home. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

“I’m still a very, very proud Laois man. I grew up on a farm in the Knockaroo Parish near Borris-in-Ossory. I have
family, a brother and his daughter, still living there.

“My father was Robbert/ Bobby Bennett, a farmer, and my mother Evelyn was a teacher and I had a very happy childhood,” he said.

His father would have been well known from his involvement with Donaghmore Creamery and Avonmore.

While Robert enjoyed life on the farm, he wasn’t destined for a farming life. His brother Neil, who was a captain of Portlaoise Rugby Club, took over the farm in Knockaroo and still farms there.

When Roger finished school he went to Trinity College Dublin in 1971 where he studied English and French and subsequently qualified as a secondary school teacher.

He would go on to teach for many years in Dublin but in 1992 took a career break for family reasons. It was during this time off that working with wood appeared on the horizon.

“It was one of those chance happenings. There was a woodturning event on in UCD and I went along. I’d never seen woodturning before. There was a demonstration by some woodturners and I was absolutely mesmerised,” he said.

He still recalls what it was like to see bowls and other items being transformed.

“To me it looked like magic,” he said.

The only connection he can make to being attracted to what he saw and subsequently doing it for a living was his farming roots.

“I often say that people on farms are always mending or making things,” he said.

The day at the demonstration soon led to evening classes and he confesses that he became “even more mesmerised”. A shed was soon put up in the back garden and he began experimenting with making bowls, lamps and vases. It wasn’t long before he had enough to sell and took a stand at a market.

By this stage it was clear that his life had changed, but 1995 would be the watershed year.

“My one-year career break was extended to four. In one of those years I got onto a course run by the Craft Council in Kilkenny
which was hugely important,” he said.

The 12 months in Kilkenny would define his work life right up to the current day as it springboarded him into a major career shift.

“It confirmed for me what I wanted to do and that I wasn’t going to go back teaching,” he said.

He had the full support of his wife, Siobhán Parkinson, in taking the leap of faith away from teaching. Roger says she made a similar career shift in becoming a writer for children. She was Ireland’s first Laureate na nÓg in 2010, and she is
also a book publisher at Little Island Books.

His parents back in Laois also backed his decision. He knew he was taking a risk in deciding to make a living from the arts, but he believes the satisfaction is “enormous”.

“I have no regrets whatsoever,” he said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

As to his creations, he said he realised the limited space at his workshop restricted the produce he could make. Early on he started to make a particular type of decorative bowl; during our interview, Roger held up an example of one made
from sycamore from the farm in Knockaroo.

The almost hand-sized bowl is coloured with a water-based wood dye and inlaid with silver.

He embeds dots of silver into the turned wooden bowl by marking out a pattern and then drills a tiny hole in the wood before carefully glueing in some silver wire.

When each hole in the pattern has been inlaid with silver, he removes the protruding silver wire. He then colours the bowl and finishes with oil. He finds it hard to say how much time it takes to make a bowl as he works on multiple creations simultaneously, but he estimates several hours.

“It’s very concentrated work because one mistake and you have very expensive firewood,” he said.

As to how he defines his work - which is made from sustainable timber - Roger said the debate between art and craft is endless.

In a nod to his farming origins, he defined it simply: “I’m a maker."